


Burst Stars

by en passant (corinthian)



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-29
Updated: 2015-01-05
Packaged: 2018-03-04 03:00:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2906780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/corinthian/pseuds/en%20passant
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So, when there are duels in the Astral World — and when they return home — he continues to whittle away at his soul.</p>
<p>--</p>
<p>After it all, Kaito's body is still falling apart a little. And after it all, Rio still has so much more to show the world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Every time Kaito uses Photon Mode he carves off a sliver of his soul and sets it alight. That’s the beacon that calls down the Galaxy Eyes. The first time he did it his soul shard manifested in the shape of a great spear carved out of an amethyst so deep it looked star-speckled. He confessed to Chris, later, that it was like scraping his knees, but somewhere deep inside his chest cavern; it felt like peeling a part of his heart off. Chris had said, interesting, when you do it again can you pay more attention? I want to know more. Kaito had been flattered, a little, that Chris had wanted to know more about what he felt.

When they’re in the Astral World, Kaito draws Astral aside. They talk about meaningless things, really. The texture of peanut butter, the way the stars look from the Astral World, the way that Yuuma is too kind to everyone — and exactly, what defines kindness. Kaito wants to know, really, how much was rewritten. The answer is that Astral didn’t change anything that led them to where they were. The paths of their past remain unchanged. 

So, when there are duels in the Astral World — and when they return home — he continues to whittle away at his soul. The first thing to go is color. It’s disconcerting. He mistakes the orange juice for milk, the colored wires inside the robots become meaningless and everything seems dimmer. He’s quick to learn the cues, what kind of viscosity or bubbles different liquids have, different ways to mark the wiring when he works and how to not flinch at unexpected sights. It’s no harder than learning to reassure his brother, and Kaito excels at that.

He tells Chris, because part of him still enjoys the look of keen interest in Chris’s eyes when a particularly interesting problem comes up. Chris takes it in stride, asks if Kaito has looked into solutions, wonders if there are other ways to summon a dragon like the Galaxy Eyes. Then, he says, _Feelings Toward The Future_. And Kaito knows what he means. Without Haruto’s life on the line, it’s harder to be dedicated. It’s even more unfair to depend on his little brother for something so simple. Chris promises to help him look for an answer, but they both know that it’s busywork. What’s lost is much harder to reclaim than to throw away.

The next thing to go is the feeling in his left hand. He burns two fingers against the stovetop — accidentally touching the red hot coils without realizing they were on. It was only the scent of scorched flesh that alerts him to the problem. There’s no hiding it from Orbital, then. With a wail the robot tries to badger him into changing and Kaito relents — to only duel for special occasions and when it’s necessary. Idiots aren’t worth what you are, Kaito-sama! Orbital tries to say, to mean it, but Kaito just smirks indulgently and rewraps bandages around his fingers.

Strangely, it’s Ryouga’s sister that keys into his _lacks_. She’s sharper than her brother and after a reunion outing — chaotic, loud, emotionally exhausting but fulfilling — she stands right in front of Kaito and grins, showing off all her teeth. “So, the person who beat my brother.” She says, cocks her head to one side. “You’re not looking so hot, these days.” And it’s said in a way that Kaito knows means she knows. Yuuma asks if he has a cold and Ryouga can’t seem to be able to decide if he wants to scold Kaito or Rio first. Kaito shrugs, says he’s been under the weather but he probably didn’t get them sick. He adds that if he did, he’ll buy them cold medicine. Yuuma just says, oh yeah, you’re rich, and they all leave it at that.

Later, on a whim, he hunts down the siblings. They’re living in a home that isn’t theirs and doesn’t have a listed address and is keyed into the electrical system but Kaito is sure isn’t quite legal. He doesn’t really care, and lets himself be mildly impressed — even if he doesn’t say it.

“What are you doing here?” Ryouga demands.

“Looking for someone not you,” Kaito answers. Being argumentative with Ryouga is always reassuringly familiar. Simple and easy, reliable.

“If you want to talk to Rio then you get just butt out.” Ryouga mutters, but on cue Rio makes her appearance.

“Oh, is my cute brother defending my honor?”

“You wish.”

“How cruel! I am your only sister after all.”

Kaito watches them bicker, fond in a way that he wouldn’t admit to. He and Haruto would never bicker like that — things would always be too fragile, now. Haruto would always be _too young_ , even if Kaito knows better. Finally Rio waves Ryoug off and tosses her head back.

“How can I help you?”

He doesn’t really know. So he shrugs. He didn’t come to ask for her help. “You’ve been living here for a while?”

“Jealous? That doesn’t seem like you either.”

“You don’t have an address.”

“We don’t get a lot of mail.” She regards him in that piercing way that reminds him of how she looked as a Barian, like a queen. “Did you come to duel one of us?” Kaito’s lips twitch.

“No. If I’m bothering you, I’ll leave.”

Her laugh is bright, but not at all like laughter he associates with happiness. But it’s then that Kaito realizes he really only associates Haruto’s laugh with happiness. Haruto’s innocent laugh, the one in his memory, not the newer one that’s always a second too early. Or, too loud when it shouldn’t be. Kaito studies her and thinks, she must be honestly happy, she doesn’t have any reason not to be.

“Why don’t we go star watch.” Rio doesn’t suggest, she offers.

They should be able to see one of the bright gaseous giants, tonight, but only if they head out of the city. The lights are too bright to see the stars.

“It’s a good night for it.”

“I’ll drive.” It’s almost a kindness, but she offers her left hand to shake. He can’t feel her hand at all and when he pulls back he guesses she gripped his hand too tightly, judging from the soft denting in his skin. “Unless you’d rather.”

“Wheel’s yours.”

Rio drives like a daredevil, but one that’s perfectly controlled. She takes the corners fast, the hills even faster and has an exacting way about turning the wheel that speak of practice. Kaito asks her if she’s driven many getaways and she turns the question back at him.

No, but I’ve hunted. 

It’s under the stars, Kaito pointing out the soft amethyst rings of a far away planet and Rio tracing the constellations that she grins and says, me too.


	2. Chapter 2

Rio isn’t anything like his mother — the woman that he knew the longest.

They don’t even look similar — but, truth be told, Kaito’s memory of his mother is a little foggy — Rio is petite, but he thinks she’s grown. Ryouga has, and since they’re twins it only stands to reason that Rio would as well. Kaito remembers his mother being impossibly tall, stocky, someone who stood shoulder to shoulder with his father, who at the time, had seemed almost godlike. His father seemed to know everything and his mother had been so strong.

Bitterly, Kaito thinks that he must have worshipped his parents, once upon a time. He won’t make that mistake again, not with anyone.

Of course, the other difference is that while his mother had been so strong she had wasted away, quickly. Rio had been Ryouga’s comatose sister, then his little sister and then she had been Merag, an Emperor and then she had been Rio — everything about her was a forward motion.

She is, too, insufferably devoted to her family. It’s something Kaito understands on some level, of course, because Haruto is _his_ little brother and taking care of your brother is something that he can’t ever stop thinking about. Not since his mother clasped his hand tightly and told him to be good. Not since his father brushed him aside, for the first time, leaned over Haruto’s crib and said _my son, the most important thing in my life_ — Kaito had been just old enough to understand what that meant.

That’s probably why he thinks she could do better.

“Ryouga really needs to study more,” is how she explains why they meet on the library steps. Her brother is inside, still, studying with Yuma and some other classmates — other ex-Barians, Kaito thinks. He wouldn’t have minded joining them, but he wouldn’t have invited himself either. The sunset is a halo of soft gray, to him, behind the buildings and she’s framed by white. “He falls behind so easily.”

“Not going to look after him, to make sure he does his work?”

Not that Kaito would do that with Haruto, either. Children never learn if you guide them through every step, they need to have space to make their own mistakes. She seems to follow his train of thought — because she laughs and sits on the railing.

“I’m the perfect little sister,” placating and challenging all at once. “Don’t you have any pride?”

Kaito crosses his arms. He’s gotten used to the fact that he can’t feel the way his left hand tucks under his right elbow. He’s always been good at adjusting, though.

“We’re not competing in that.”

She laughs. Rio kicks her feet a little in a motion that he would have thought perfectly natural, cute, even, but because of what she said and the way that she looks at him, head angling back so her eyes — which he remembers, are red — look down at him, it’s not quite cute.

“You couldn’t measure up to me, even if you tried.”

“There’s many things I wouldn’t do for Ryouga.”

“You’re much more the older sibling type, anyway.”

Of course he is. Kaito doesn’t know how to be anything else, even though he spent more than half of his life as an only child. The memories of that time always seem so distant, like it had been someone else’s life. In a way, it had been. It had been before he changed his ‘family’ name, after all.

“And you’re content to just be the younger sibling?”

“ _Just_? I think you misunderstand how things work. I feel sorry for your brother.”

“Haruto’s doing fine.”

“Don’t you think you could do much better, for him?”

It’s such an unexpected echo of his own thoughts, but with _for him_ added on that he doesn’t know what to say. Kaito finds himself frowning, finds himself trying to find a crack in her placid smile and cute swinging of her legs. His first reaction is to nod, or accept, to ignore or let her take this round. He knows what matters, but she said _your brother_.

He knows he could have done better, for Haruto, he doesn’t know if he could have done better for himself.

“Is that what we’re competing in, now?” Kaito uncrosses his arms. He gives her his own rough smile, it’s always just an echo of excitement but he knows how it looks in the mirror. It’s the cocky grin of the Numbers Hunter — but in truth, it’s an approximation of his own excitement, that he used to have, for challenges. Kaito had always liked games, problem solving, inventions. But then every puzzle had been how to keep his brother from dying and every challenge had involved pain. “I won’t lose.”

She hops off the railing and stands before him. Rio is solidly planted, her shoulders are square to his and her hands don’t go to her hips but she holds up a fist.

“I never lose.” Her knuckles brush the hollow of his throat, slowly, a gesture like an aborted punch, only softer.

He cups his hands over hers, not quite touching, but the invitation for contact again is there. “Someone always loses,” he says.


End file.
